The Disciplined Life

Studies in Fine Art of Christian Discipleship

Richard Shelley Taylor

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781839743412
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The plight of modern man may be summed up in his striving for the road of self-indulgence. The way of least resistance is his goal.With bold, deft strokes from his ready pen, Dr. Richard S. Taylor penetrates the shallowness of our culture and lays bare the dire need for disciplined living.He touches on all those areas which stymie saints. Overeating, moodiness, erratic emotions, punctuality—all get their proper attention.But, best of all, he offers a program on how to actually become a disciplined person!If you are tired of the sloppiness and low productivity level of your personal life, wade in! This is the book for you!

PART ONE—The Place of Discipline in Christian living

CHAPTER ONE—Discipline the Key to Power

National Power

The world belongs to the disciplined. One of the most ominous disclosures which has come out of Russia in recent years is the revelation that Communist youth are subjected to a far more intensive and exacting training than most young people in the Western nations. The American way of life, on the other hand, accents relaxation and recreation. It is true, we talk about American high pressure and the fast American pace, which is sending so many to mental hospitals, but this is the fast pace, not of the disciplined, but of the undisciplined. It is energetic striving, not for self-improvement, but for a good time. The American works feverishly to get ahead materially, but in it all he is determined to have his pleasures. He wants to eat his cake and have it too. Therefore the assertion that the American accent is on recreation and relaxation is supportable in spite of the paradoxical tension.

The Western world loves to play. Up to a point this is good. But when play—whether vicarious play via TV or grandstand, or play via personal participation—consumes a larger proportion of leisure time, money, conversation, and interest than is warranted by its cultural and recreative returns, then the play becomes the mark of a decadent age and the badge of softness rather than strength. It takes discipline to learn a new art, or science, or skill; it takes no discipline to watch a ball game or a wrestling match.

There was a time when intercollegiate debating drew big crowds. Now the debates are held in side rooms, while the crowd cheers at the basketball game. This shift of interest from the intellectual to the recreational has occurred even in Christian colleges—so widespread is the accent on relaxation and recreation. It must be emphatically asserted that the shift of excited popular interest from debates to basketball is a sign of cultural decline.

True enough, some discipline is involved in athletic training. But the discipline of the mind is on a higher level. Apart from divine intervention, the nation which produces the most scientists and educators will dominate the world, not the nation that produces the best sportsmen. Today the Russian scientists are seriously threatening American supremacy in industrial technology, mass production, military might, and space conquest. Which is more vital to the welfare of the world—the discipline that wins golden eagles at the Olympics or the discipline that outstrips the world on economic, military, and political levels?

Immediately following World War II the American GI in Europe earned a reputation for being “kind-hearted but undisciplined.” Kind-heartedness is a virtue when coupled with moral stability. Without discipline kind-heartedness becomes sentimental weakness. No nation has survived which has become self-indulgent and flabby. There is no reason to hope that Western nations which discard disciplined living will prove an exception. If communism finally conquers the world, it will not be because of better ideology, but because of better discipline.

Communist Lenin once said: “With a handful of dedicated people who will give me their lives, I will control the world.” Let us compare this with the warning of Theodore Roosevelt: “The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get rich theory of life.”{1} Will our aversion to discipline be the Achilles’ heel which will turn Roosevelt’s warning into prophecy and Lenin’s boast into fact?

Personal Power

Not only nationally and politically, but in every realm, the race belongs to the disciplined. In the battle of ideas the disciplined mind has the advantage over the scatterbrain. A trained mind can evaluate evidence, think logically, select ends, and devise means; it can concentrate on essentials and discard the irrelevant. A trained mind can think more rapidly and also more accurately. At the same time the man with the ready mind is more apt to express himself coherently and persuasively. Consequently the man whose mind is undisciplined will soon be outclassed and outdistanced by others in whatever field he enters. He will find himself not only on a lower scale economically, but dominated socially by those who are more efficient. The peril is that the social subordination may become political subjugation. Master minds know how to manipulate the unthinking masses to the perpetuation of their own power. The undisciplined mind is always an easy prey for the demagogue and the charlatan. Out of such mass intellectual dullness and inertia dictatorships are spawned.

Although the discipline of the body is of less importance, it can be indispensable to power if its object is to train the body to serve the mind in the attaining of worthy objectives. The ability of Thomas Edison to sleep and awaken at will and to work through gruelling, unbroken stretches, undoubtedly contributed to his greatness as an inventor. In April, 1941, Fritz Kreisler was forced by his accident to lay aside his violin for many weeks. When finally he tuned his instrument once again, his fingers were so stiff that playing seemed impossible. “But my desire was so intense,” he reported later, “and I told myself: These are my fingers. These are my slaves. I am the general. I order them to play and I will them to action.

“You know—they played.”{2}

The discipline of the years had carried over.

The advantage of the man with the disciplined body is most apt to be seen in his superior health and longevity. His better health will give him greater efficiency and effectiveness, while added years will extend his fruitfulness and power. Undisciplined living from twenty years of age to fifty is not likely to result in undiminished powers at seventy.

The fact that Moses reached the age of one hundred twenty years with his natural vitality unabated may have been due partially to the forty years in the wilderness as a shepherd, when his body became inured to summer heat and winter frost. We do know that John Wesley ascribed his preservation to his practice of rising at four o’clock and preaching at five. Though such a routine would shorten rather than extend the life of some men, particularly in this age of late nights—and disciplined avoidance of that kind of “Wesleyanism” might be wiser—it is still true that the man who learns to “keep his body under” is more likely to avoid being not only a castaway spiritually but a castaway physically.

We have talked about a disciplined mind and a disciplined body. Actually, of course, these are but adjuncts of a disciplined character. This is the great lack, the fatal deficiency. Too many of us are weak as persons. There may be an outstanding strong ability which has been cultivated by an intense training within that narrow sphere, such as a steady hand and keen eye in playing golf, without general strength of character. But if one is weak as a person, the specialized ability will be progressively choked by the growth of vices until it will be lost. A physician of my acquaintance had outstanding talents, but his indulgence in drink and immorality first cost him his reputation, then his practice, then his life—and certainly his soul. The professional discipline represented by years of arduous study in medical school was finally dissolved in the larger weakness of character.

When Personal Power Tells

The superior power and efficiency of disciplined character are seen especially in great crises, times of sickness or bereavement, or financial adversity. A woman in Boston approached the very brink of nervous collapse through strain and overwork. She was unable to sleep, and was tortured with the sensation of crawling things on her skin, which gave rise to an almost irresistible urge to claw at her own flesh. When she was hospitalized, the doctor told her frankly that, whatever drugs might be given, the conquest of the condition depended on her mental self-control, and her ability to refrain from scratching. Years of discipline came to her rescue. She lay quietly, holding her arms by her side, when her whole nervous system wanted to scream and writhe. After a few days the condition subsided and the recuperative powers of enforced rest soon sent her home a well woman.

The discipline of mind and body which was demanded was made possible by years of habitual self-control and intelligent direction in her total life. Disciplined character paid dividends. Weak character would have succumbed to the imperious clamoring of the nervous system, and a long and tragic mental break would have been the result. This is not to imply that prolonged physical or mental illness is always a proof of weak character, but it does suggest that in many cases such complete breakdowns could be prevented if there were the background of disciplined character to handle the situation wisely and in time.

Too often modern doctors practice in weak concession to the spineless self-indulgence of modern character, by avoiding those methods which impose self-discipline on the patient. It is easier to prescribe the things they know the patient would like to do, such as “taking it easier,” or taking sweet-tasting nostrums, or maybe going on a trip, when possibly down in their hearts they know that none of these palliatives touch the real need.

Disciplined character belongs to the person who achieves balance by bringing all his faculties and powers under control. There are order, consistency, and purpose in his life. As a result he has poise and grace. He does not panic, nor does he indulge in maudlin self-pity when tossed by crosscurrents. He rises courageously, even heroically, to meet life and conquer it. He resolutely faces his duty. He is governed by a sense of responsibility. He has inward resources and personal reserves which are the wonder of weaker souls. He brings adversity under tribute, and compels it to serve him. When adversity becomes too overwhelming and blows fall which he cannot parry, he bows to them, but is not broken by them. His spirit still soars. The strong character of Madame Guyon enabled her, though imprisoned, to rise in spirit and sing:

My cage confines me round;

Abroad I cannot fly.

But though my wing is closely bound,

My heart’s at liberty.

My prison walls cannot control

The flight, the freedom of the soul.

Of course there is power in such a life!

Furthermore, only the disciplined character can carry through in the positions of larger responsibility. This is true in industry, education, religion. Many have ambitions which are never realized, goals which are never reached, aspirations for usefulness which are never fulfilled, visions which never materialize. While the failure may at times be due to limited ability, too often the deficiency is not in native endowment but in character. The capacity for gruelling application is lacking. There may be the promising start, but not the discipline required to carry through. Even if by good fortune or “pull” the undisciplined man should reach the position of power, he cannot maintain it, for he is not inwardly prepared. He collapses under the weight of responsibility, and the pressure and complexity of detail. He lacks the strength of leadership, the fullness of knowledge, the soundness of judgment, which can only be built up bit by bit through years of painstaking toil.

Many a young person would like to become a doctor or a top-flight scientist but never will, simply because he will not buckle down to the demanding years of hard study. Many young people would like to achieve artistry and mastery in music but they never will, simply because they will not face the long hours of monotonous practice year after year. They may through natural talent become singers or pianists of a sort, but they will not pay that extra price for true excellence. They are too lazy and self-indulgent to pommel themselves to the top. Their ambitions may not be beyond their capacity, but they are beyond their discipline. The world is full of naturally brilliant people who never rise above mediocrity because they will not make the sacrifice which superiority requires.

I heard Igor Gorin, the famous Ukrainian-American baritone, admit in a radio interview that, while he started his conservatory training with a large class of promising young people, only one or two actually reached the top because, he said, the others were not willing to make the sacrifices that were required and submit themselves to the grind of years of rugged self-denial. Some fell in love and got married; some just became weary of the monotony and regimentation; others became homesick and returned home. Finally the ranks were thinned down to a very, very few. In the interview Mr. Gorin related a personal experience. He said that he had loved to smoke a pipe. But one day his professor of voice said to him, “Igor, you will have to make up your mind whether you are going to be a great singer or a great pipe smoker. You cannot be both.” So the pipe went. Igor Gorin was willing to pay the price for mastery; others were not.

The edge possessed by the disciplined over the undisciplined shows up in many little things. The disciplined person picks up his clothes; the undisciplined lets them lie. One washes the bathtub after himself; the other leaves the high-water mark for someone else to scrub. One plans his work and works to his plan; the other works haphazardly. One is habitually prompt in his appointments; the other is notoriously tardy. Some people are always on time at church, while others never are. Observers of many years’ experience will support the claim that the difference cannot be explained in the greater distance to travel or larger families to hustle. The difference is habit, and habit is character.

But the prizes go to the neat, the thoughtful, the systematic, the thrifty, the punctual. The brilliant lad who lives by his wits may dazzle his way to prominence, but sooner or later he is sure to sleep while the tortoise waddles past him. A boy who was far above average drifted nonchalantly through high school and early college. He wasn’t going to let his education interfere with life! But toward the end of his college he settled down to serious studies; then he tried for a coveted scholarship which carried not only a large sum for advanced study but a coveted position in a reputable firm. Wanting just that position, in just that firm, he gave the effort all he had. In competition with many others he came first, with only one rival very close behind. The award went to the other lad—who came second. The manager explained kindly: “This position is one of great responsibility, and calls for steadiness and reliability. We find by studying your record that, though you have done well in this particular effort, your previous work has not been consistent. Better luck next time!” Those last words were a mere convention. The chagrined candidate stumbled out, knowing full well that luck had nothing to do with it. It was discipline that tipped the scale.

CHAPTER TWO—Discipline the Mark of Maturity

The term discipline carries a variety of meanings. To the child it means being compelled to do something undesirable and being punished if he rebels. Discipline for him means compulsion, pain, authority. To the soldier discipline means conformity to regulations, instant obedience to orders, K.P. duty, reveille on cold mornings. To the student it means the course of instruction he is undertaking, with the specific requirements and rules and examinations incident to it. I heard one man describe his academic qualifications in the words: “I submitted to the discipline of twelve units in psychology.” To the Christian, discipline means discipleship—following Jesus, with one’s self denied and one’s cross resolutely carried.

The child, the soldier, the student, the disciple are all correct. But there is something more. The aim of child discipline, or military, or academic, or religious, is a disciplined character which goes beyond the minimum demands of these specific disciplines and permeates the whole life. Imposed discipline (of which we will say more later) must lead to self-discipline. It is even possible for the Christian to be a sincere and regenerated follower of Jesus, yet remain undisciplined in many facets of his character and in many areas of life. One may be a cross-bearer—one may, in fact, be purified from the carnal mind a...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Table of Contents
• DEDICATION
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• PART ONE-The Place of Discipline in Christian living
• PART TWO-The Path to Discipline in Christian Living
• CHAPTER I-Question for Further Discussion
• CHAPTER II-Question for Further Discussion
• CHAPTER III-Question for Further Discussion
• CHAPTER IV-Question for Further Discussion
• CHAPTER V-Question for Further Discussion
• CHAPTER VI-Question for Further Discussion